354 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



* 



unsuccessful attempts to reach its dam, the kid started back 

 toward the point from which the Indian was advancing; but 

 before proceeding very far, sprung down upon a narrow shelf, 

 arid stood concealed beneath an overhanging busli. 



The Indian, in the meantime working his way upward, 

 stopped within a few feet of the place; but from his actions 

 I was satisfied he was ignorant of the kid's position, and 

 fearing the i^rize would escape, in my excitement I shouted 

 at the top of my voice. The sound must have died away 

 before reaching him, for he took no notice. Presently, he 

 raised his musket and leveled it at the old one, which still 

 remained in the same position on the shelf above; but lower- 

 ing it again, he commenced a search among the rocks for 

 the lost kid. 



His stupidity annoyed me, for, had he kejjt his i)osition, 

 he commanded, so far as I could see, the only way by which 

 the kid could escaj^e. Below was a perpendicular clilf of a 

 thousand feet, against the side of which no possible foot- 

 hold for anything without wings could be seen. But in 

 this I was mistaken, for a rock, loosened by the Indian's 

 foot, rolling over the cliff started the little animal from its 

 hiding-place, and, with a bound, it sprung outward and 

 down. The thought of its fate sent a cold shudder through 

 me. A thousand feet sheer down, to be ground to atoms 

 on the rocks below! 



But no — down it went, fifteen or twenty feet, and alighted 

 on a rocky cone which stood out at a slight angle from the 

 main cliff, on the top of which tliere was scarcely room for 

 its feet huddled together. Had it started from that point- 

 and soared away over the tops of the trees which studded 

 the valley, I would not have been more suri^rised, and I 

 waited breathlessly for the next move. 



For a moment it rested like a speck of snow upon the 

 dark-gray granite cone, then, with a downward spring of 

 IDerhaps ten feet, it reached a narrow shelf which had before 

 escaped my notice, and which ran along the face of the clift" 

 to the wooded mountains on the right. But a sadder fate 

 awaited the unfortunate animal than if it had fallen into 



